Color printing and image processing applications require a user interface that allows the user to communicate color requirements or instructions. The internal description of these requirements is a precise color encoding which is arcane to the uninitiated. Some digital imaging and document editing applications provide powerful and sophisticated tools for experienced users. However, the learning curve for such tools can be steep. Such image editing tools provide a user with the ability to edit colors in a document according to their preference and expectation. Solutions have arisen in this art which provide a natural language interface for image editing tools and document creation software by which users can construct color change modifiers to specify the changes they want to make. Natural language provides many modifying adjectives or phrases to provide further subtle discrimination in color specification that a user desired to make, such as: “Make greens lighter” or “Make blues deeper”. Such phrases, when made or selected by the user, are converted into a transform which, in turn, references a 3-dimensional lookup table (LUT) to obtain the desired operation to be performed on the image displayed. Although this system is easier for users than using sophisticated image editing software tools known in the color science arts to edit their respective images, users may find themselves confused and even paralyzed by the choices available for selection. Some choices may not even be relevant or proper for a given image. For example, an image editing menu should not display the selectable modifying phrase “Make yellows lighter” if there is no yellow present in the image. As such, rather than expose a user to all possible selectable color adjective modifiers and phrases, it is desirable to analyze the image being edited and then present the user with choices that are appropriate from which a selection can be made.
Accordingly, what is needed in this art are increasingly sophisticated systems and methods for modifying the menu choices available for selection by a user using the user interface of image editing software based upon a color characteristic of a selected image.